Newport to Nantucket

We left Newport after a very fun visit. We easily could have stayed longer exploring the shops and marine offerings for liveaboard cruisers like us but we always love the waterfront bars and restaurants. You would think that being on the water we would look for something else, but we always look for the places on the water just like the dirt dwellers.

We left the anchorage about 0730 and motored down the Narragansett Bay with the wind on our nose. Once clear of the shallows at Branton Point we turned and were able to sail. We were headed to Cuttyhunk for the night with the wind at about 80 degrees and we were sailing smartly. We maintained a sailing speed in excess of 7 kts so it was good. We ran through some showers along the way but in our enclosure it was dry.

Fort Adams as we motored past it in the early morning light.

We sailed right up to entering Cuttyhunk outside harbor. Having never been here we were not sure about going to the inner harbor for a mooring so we grabbed one on in the outer harbor. There were plenty available so we picked one and tied up to it.

View from the outer harbor looking in the entrance channel to the inside.

Cuttyhunk was a place I first heard of in Law School almost 40 years ago from a case in one of our casebooks. More recently many New England cruisers have talked about it so we needed to come here. Cuttyhunk is a weekend favorite for locals because it features a protected harbor and some local amenities. The inner harbor has 360 degree protection and significant shelter from most wind directions. It will be calm when the outer harbor has strong winds.

After we got on the mooring the winds howled and rain cascaded and we settled in for an unpleasant stay. But the squalls moved on and we decided to go into town. There wasn't much of a town but we found some dock-based food including the "Raw Bar" who would bring selected food to your boat. The island is dry but we were interested in the bisque and crab spread.

We walked about the town before heading back to the boat without any local fare. Since it was midweek there were many free moorings and we thought that if we were going to stay we would come inside in the morning to ride out the heavy forecasted winds.

Local fishing docks off the inner harbor.

Golf carts are the norm on this island.

View looking across at the Vineyard.

A very smart looking house overlooking the Sound.

The Methodist Church.

The elementary school.

Looking back at Buzzards Bay.

Looking at the Outer Harbor.

The road to the highest point on the island.

But in the morning we reassessed the forecasts and decided that we would head to our next destination Nantucket. So we waited for the currents in Quick Hole to change and left in the late morning for the whaling island. We timed the currents correctly as we had current behind us going up Buzzards Bay with a slight current against us through Quicks Hole and then after a bit of a slog up the Vineyard Sound we picked up the current the rest of the way to Nantucket. It's nice to go through a cut with the current but if it's one that is unfamiliar a little opposing current is good to help improve steerage. As it turns out Quicks Hole is very wide open and deep compared to some like Woods Hole.

Looking at Quicks Hole.

The wind was mostly behind us so we had to motor up Vineyard Sound. Debated about putting up the spinnaker but the wind was light and we went through some showers and I really don't want to get the spinnaker wet because we stow it in a cabin locker. We rounded the top of Martha's Vineyard and the wind came around and we began to sail and what a sail we had. We sailed all the way to the entrance to Nantucket. We were running 8-10 kts the entire way. The weather was beautiful until about 5 miles outside Nantucket where we ran into fog that stayed with us until about a mile before the entrance channel.

Vineyard Haven Light on Martha's Vineyard.

Breezing our way to Nantucket. After I took this picture we hit 10kts. Sailing fast is exciting.

The anchorage in Nantucket from our anchor site.

We dropped the hook near where we anchored last year and after an invigorating sail were ready to enjoy our next adventure in Nantucket. So we thought.

Newport and all that jazz

Time certainly flies when you're having fun or not paying attention to the clock or calendar. But we left Block Island on Friday the 5th of August for the short journey over to Newport where we had a slip reserved in the Navy Marina. In addition to catching up on some boat chores we would be able to visit with some friends we hadn't seen in a while.

 

Castle Hill by the entrance to Narragansett Bay.

Downtown Newport from the water.

 
We couldn't get to the marina before noon so we didn't leave really early. As soon as we dropped the mooring ball it was snatched by one of the other boats standing by waiting for a mooring. There was little wind so we motored across Block Island Sound and stopped at Port Judith for fuel.  Then continuing on up the Narragansett to the Navy Marina and into our slip. One of the nice things about most of the military marinas is that everyone is very helpful. When we went into our slip we had about 8 folks turn out to help grab lines.

Friday was about the only time we had to relax of our time in Newport. We made a last minute decision to get a rental car for the weekend to do provisioning. So we spent most of Saturday running errands. One of the "to do" items was get one of our propane tanks refilled that had run out at Block Island. We have 2 tanks and I try to get the empty refilled as soon as possible so we always have gas in both tanks. The last time I got a tank filled was in Marathon in February.

Us with Stan.

Saturday night we spent with my college roommate Stan Greenwood who drove down from Boston to visit. We visited with him last summer when we were in New England. Sunday morning One of my son's former commanders, Kris Faught visited with us. We met him at my son Jeremy's promotion at Cherry Point back in the Spring. He's very interested in living aboard at some point so over breakfast we discussed the challenges and the opportunities of living aboard and cruising.

Monday our friends Ed and Diane O'Brien drove down from Massachusetts for the day. Their boat is in storage in Florida and the plan to get back to it in the Fall. We did sightseeing, had lunch at the Red Parrot and then sat on the lawn at the Castle Hill Inn and had drinks overlooking the Bay.

Us with our friends Ed & Diane.

View of the lawn at Castle Hill.

View of the Castle Hill Light.

When I originally made our slip reservation I made it for a Tuesday departure. However, in arranging our social bookings we found that we needed to stay over Tuesday. The manager of the Navy Marina told us we couldn't stay because he had other boats coming in. But, there were numerous empty slips but he simply said he had a boat coming in. So we left the marina Tuesday and went to the downtown anchorage and anchored.

View of the NY Yacht Club.

View from our slip in the anchorage.

Tuesday evening we met up with Greg and Sharon from an IP 45 Dream Catcher who we spent time with at Vero Beach and in Marathon. We sort of started with a happy hour at the Moorings, then had appetizers at the Revolving Door and finally entrees at the Lobster Shack.

Sunset of our last night in Newport taken from the Lobster Shack.

So our visit to Newport ended after spending lots of quality time with friends.  It's easy to see why people like Newport. There's always so much going on boaters and dirt dwellers alike. Good thing we missed the Jazz Festival.

Wednesday we had an early departure for our next destination.

Fort Adams as we left.

Finally a few days to relax on the Block

Our rough passage north ended with a peaceful entrance into the Great Salt Pond that forms a huge protected harbor inside of Block Island. We communicated with the Harbormaster and after a delay while the Harbormaster helped another boat anchor they got us onto a private mooring for the night as all the town moorings were taken. After our rough overnight passage we were anxious to get settled and a nice meal before getting down for the night.

Looking out across the anchorage after getting tied down to our mooring for the night.


So we got settled and had a nice meal and had an early bedtime. My thought was to get up in the morning, have breakfast and then begin to look for a town mooring. But we thought to get on it early and try to get settled early. The search for a mooring got frustrating as 2 smaller boats pulled in right in front of us to get moorings. As a larger boat maneuvering through a mooring field it is more difficult but we were in position to get the next mooring and got settled and had our Sunday morning breakfast that we hadn't had.

So after a casual breakfast and some work around the boat we went ashore and walked a bit. We got back to the Oar and split a lobster roll and black bean burger while talking with others at the bar. We became friends with a single-hander, Rich Collins, on a Beneteau 50 from NYC on a boat named Michael's Spirit. Rich Collins explained that his boat is named for his brother who died in the World Trade Center on 9/11. RIP Michael.

Some of the homes and stone walls along the road from the Yacht basin.

The American Legion and memorials to BI war dead.

Linda with the harbor in the background.

The view from the Oar.

View from our mooring.

The scene at night with the lighted fishing boats.

This week at Block Island is probably one of their busiest. The prime season here runs from just before the 4th of July holiday until school starts in August. So late July early August is the busiest time of the year. There was also a fishing tournament going on so places were really busy.

After the frontal passage during the Sunday overnight the weather turned from very hot to very cool for the entire east coast. I was looking forward to beach days on Block Island but the water was very cool and now the wind was cool. So while the sun was out nicely it was too cold for us to get in the water. Instead we opted to just do some walks around town and visit some of the places we enjoy.

Block Island is a very unspoiled environment with unobtrusive houses surrounded by iconic stone walls with a few large hotels that were built around the turn of the previous century. BI has lots of great restaurants that are busy all hours of the day. We had lunch one day at Los Gatitos translated as "The Kittens." They have a very limited Mexican menu but the food is good. We also ate at the Oar. Their cold lobster roll is very good. Although I don't think I've ever had a bad lobster roll but some are better than others.

A local cruise ship in port for the day brings hundreds of tourists.

The 3 kittens restaurant.

Block Island got its name in colonial times because it was a stumbling block for sailors going to southern New England ports. Anyone who has sailed around here knows there are many shoals and currents that need to be considered when passing through.

Downtown New Shoreham.

The memorial fountain.

Ferries in the Old Harbor that run several ties daily to southern New England ports bringing hundreds of vacationers with each trip.

Many boaters from NY and southern New England make Block Island a week-long destination for summer vacation. We could have enjoyed spending more time there but it was time to move on with Newport being our next port of call. As we were leaving on Friday we passed a ferry coming out of Port Judith and it was packed with people going to the island for the weekend. We enjoy visiting BI and could spend more time here but it was nicer when we visited last year with far less people. Also had it been warmer we could have visited the beach.

So on Friday morning we moved on to Newport to avoid the weekend crowd. We had hoped for sailing weather but with only a few knots of wind behind we motored the 20+ miles to Newport.

The BI Coast Guard station as we left the Great Salt Pond.
  

A long days night and then some

I always think there will be lots of time to write these blog posts but stuff usually gets in the way. Like on long passages it would be great to just sit and write. But, there are usually other things to do.

We left Baltimore about 0630 on July 28 in order to catch the current at the C&D canal and the forecast was for storms later in the day. As per usual there was no wind to speak of so we motored down the Patapsco River and up the Bay to the mouth of the canal. The Bay was fairly quiet because it was during the week. Had we made the trip on a weekend day it would have been bustling with watercraft of all kind.

The dawn's early light over the glass water in Baltimore harbor by Fort McHenry.

As we got close to the entrance to the canal we began to see our speed increase as the current was turning in our favor. In the C&D the tide floods to the east and ebbs to the west unlike the usual pattern in the western hemisphere where the tide generally floods west. Since the current in the canal can run up to 2 kts that can make 4 kts difference in speed. For us that means doing the 15 nm of the canal at 9 kts or 5 kts.

As we made our way through the canal the skies turned threatening and the thunder storms that were predicted for later were upon us earlier than expected. We had hoped we could get to the anchorage with the hook down before it hit but it hit. We thought about ducking into a marina but we tried calling them but they didn't answer. We found out later the power was out in that area. So we motored with only a few more miles to our anchorage.

The channel in the Northern Chesapeake Bay.

Lighthouse on Elk Point where several rivers converge to form the Bay.

The squall abated as we headed into the Delaware River with thunder storms around in many directions. We planned to anchor behind Reedy Island which is just a few miles south of the canal and in relatively deep water and fairly protected. There was only one challenge. The area is protected by a stone dike that runs from the south of Reedy Island for a few miles but there is a cut through that is marked with lighted marks and there is at least a knot of river current on both sides so while you won't touch bottom you could crash into the rocks. So when we began to approach the cut a new squall blew up adding a few more challenges to getting through this narrow cut. So with high winds, fast current and heavy rain we made it through to a calmer inside but we motored around until the squall ended before we tried to anchor.

With it still raining but not blowing as hard we dropped the hook and I began paying out chain. With about 25' out I had Linda try to get some power back to help get it set and when she did the anchor caught with such force that I thought we must be fouled. But we got it set and put to bed thinking I may need to swim on it in the morning if it is caught. Squalls continued all night with winds up to 30 kts and lots of rain.

When we awoke in the morning the squalls were continuing but the winds had shifted from SE to NW and a ketch that had gone in after we did was now much closer than it was when we went to bed. With 20 kts of NW wind the boat bobbed closer. Fortunately the current was going the other way so there was some resistance to its movement. There was nobody on deck and we had no way to contact them so I blew the air horn several times to try and rouse them but to no avail. The noise of the wind and rain made it unlikely they could hear it at their distance.

View of Hope Creek Nuclear plant across from our anchorage showing the ominous skies and wind blowing the steam.

View of Cape May Point Lighthouse.

The Town of Cape May from the ocean. Good to be back on blue water again.

When the current began to abate we pulled up the anchor before they got closer and to our surprise it came right up. We weren't fouled which we hoped would be a good omen. With the wind behind us the current soon changed and we tried to sail but it soon dropped to less than 10 kts dead behind us. Given the distance and weather threats we opted to continue motoring.

About half-way down the Delaware Bay we began to notice flies attacking us. We started swatting them but it seemed like the more we killed the more there were. Pretty soon there were flies all over and around the boat that came from nowhere. We continued swatting them, used insect repellent but nothing seemed to reduce their number or intensity. Soon there were so many fly corpses we couldn't spot the living from the dead. This continued until we got close to the sea breeze by Cape May Point and they started to disappear. The few remaining ones we quickly dispatched and going up the Cape May coast was relatively peaceful but the cockpit, the coamings and rails were covered in fly entrails. A guy at the marina said the storm the night before blew them offshore and they went for the first thing they could find.

Enjoying Happy Hour after arriving in Cape May.

Enjoyed a nice couple of days at Cape May riding out the remaining storms with plans to leave Monday for Block Island. But the weather for BI Sound didn't look good for Tuesday so after extensive consideration we decided to leave Cape May on Sunday with the threat of storms. A decision I hope we would not regret. There was another boat in Cape May from Annapolis named Discovery and they were doing their first New England trip and planned to leave Sunday for Newport.

Sunday morning we were still checking weather and it looked like we might have wind to sail before motoring. Also looked like storms to our north would be clearing out so we opted for leaving around

Sunset in Cape May.

8 rather than sunrise. We left at 0820 on a heading of about 060 which took us just off the Jersey coast line. We saw showers all around and one did go over us but didn't last long.

Threatening skies the night before departure. Partial view of Discovery.

Wildwood from the sea.

Atlantic City from about 5 miles off shore.

A cargo ship coming out of NY headed to Baltimore.

There was no wind to speak of for most of the day but about mid-afternoon we caught a moderate easterly breeze that helped us motor sailing with some lift but so far so good. We used our Go and checked weather about 2100 and the forecast was still the same. About midnight we saw storms passing by in different directions but none right where we were. Then about 0100 we had a squall pass right over us with lots of wind and lightning. Not much rain but it kicked up the seas and the wind was right on our nose.

A squall behind us as it got late in the day.

The seas became confused with wind generated chop coming right at us with a previous southeasterly swell to our beam and the seas were building. The winds were running 25-30+ kts directly on our nose. +/- 10 deg off the bow. Swells quickly built to 6-8' with some waves probably 10'. We slogged on although I brought in the sails because they were just flogging in the wind. Hoping that we might catch a break at sunrise.

As the sun rose it only made the wave heights more visible but no relief. By this time we were about 12 miles off the coast of south central Long Island so I fell off the wind and pulled out the sails to get lift and we went more northerly hoping that being in closer would reduce the chop against us. It worked and with the sails we improved our speed and as we got in close the waves became less punishing. We tried a tack or 2 but the lift gained was not enough to improve our speed getting back out into the bigger waves so we stayed in and followed the shoreline with the wind close but waves manageable.

Montauk light at the end of Long Island.

As we continued the wind calmed down to 10-15 and we kept a decent speed. We made it to Block Island about 1730 Monday. Last year in absolute calm we made it here in about 30 hrs. This trip took us about 33 hours even with the conditions.

Boats anchored in Great Salt Pond on Block Island upon our arrival.

We had 2 radio conversations with Discovery during the trip but after the squall hit I didn't reach out to them again because we were too busy with everything going on as I'm sure they were. We lost contact with them but hope they also made it. Hope we see them again.

We left Baltimore knowing the weather could become challenging and it did. We left Baltimore in nearly 100 degree heat and got to Block Island it was in the 60's. The weather front that came through made all the difference and the challenges for us. It made some long days and nights. We lost a boat hook that got washed off the boat but it was a cheap one that was on the boat when we got it. We still have the good one we brought over.

We celebrated another successful passage and look forward to having some fun on these islands with no palm trees.

Hot time, summer in the City.

We spent a great week in "Charm City" as Baltimore is known locally. For probably the hottest week of the year we had a great time accomplishing lots of tasks but not really seeing much of Baltimore. It became as much of an operating base (kind of like most of our stops) to accomplish disparate tasks. The time we were there was during a hot spell in the northeast. Temps were running in the upper 90's every day with little cooling at night. Fortunately we were busy and in air conditioning so it wasn't too bad and there was a nice breeze by the water.

What is left at Sparrows Point. Once the site of the world's largest steel mill and boat yards that built any ships in WWI and WWII.

Fort Carroll a  Civil-war era fort guarding Baltimore Harbor.

We got a slip at the Anchorage Marina because they were the only marina with a reasonable weekly rate and we could get a rental car for a weekly rate so it made more sense to go there than to make several short stops and friends from our sailing club, HHSA were coming for the weekend. Plus it was on the way to our next destination, New England.

We got to Baltimore on Wednesday afternoon 20 July and Thursday we spent back in Northern VA with medical stuff and shopping. Friday was spent working around the boat and shopping although we got together with friends Stefan Leader and Andrea Heintzelman for happy hour and dinner. As always good to see them.

Saturday we spent at the Baltimore Museum of Art and in the evening we caught up with several folks from HHSA for a happy hour. But, instead of joining them all for dinner we returned to the boat for a meal more akin to our diet and to pack for our upcoming trip.

On Sunday we drove to Montgomery County PA to meet with sailing buddies Hayden and Radeen Cochran to discuss our plans for sailing this winter. Hayden and Radeen invited us to their lovely home in the country where it was still hot but comfortable. We spent the hours watching videos, reviewing charts, books and blogs about the Caribbean.

The 4 cruisers.

After our deliberations we decided that going to the Western Caribbean would probably be the best. We would start off in the Bahamas and work our way south until we were ready to jump off from Inagua andpass through the windward passage and then possibly stop in Santiago de Cuba, Port Antonio Jamaica, the Caymans, Belize and then into Guatemala where we will spend hurricane season.

On the way back to Baltimore we stopped by a college classmate, Mike Campbell to visit with him and his lovely wife Hannah. Hadn't seen them in about 5 years. Great to see them and catch up.

So back to the boat and back to our RW (real world). Many people look at our lives and see it as a vacation. But, while we do get to visit lots of fun places and do cool things that many people wish they could do there is a lot of work. We spent the next couple days doing routine work  and getting ready to leave to go north.

Much of the work we do is routine "house" work. Things like laundry, cooking, cleaning, repairs and upkeep consume alot of time. Beyond that there is boat maintenance to do on the engine, plumbing, electrical, hvac, the deck, rigging and generally every part of the boat. Unlike a house which doesn't move our boat has lots of moving parts or parts that help us move that need to be continually serviced and maintained because having them break at a bad time could have catastrophic results.

So we wrapped up everything and headed north.

The boat loaded and ready to go.